Getting Hooked: Rationality and Addiction

The essays in this volume offer the most thorough and up-to-date discussion available of the relationship between addiction and rationality. This is the only book-length treatment of the subject and includes contributions from philosophers, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, sociologists, and economists. The volume offers an up-to-date exposition of the neurophysiology of addiction, a critical examination of the Becker theory of rational addiction, an argument for a "visceral theory of addiction," a discussion of compulsive gambling as a form of addiction, several discussions of George Ainslie's theory of hyperbolic discounting, analyses of social causes and policy implications, and an investigation of the problem of relapse.

"This volume does a good job of exposing the complexity of the addiction problem. The varied approaches the different authors take in their attempts to explain addiction make it clear that there is no agreement on a model of addiction. This is not to say that this volume does not make considerable progress in shaping such a model. Anyone interested in studying the phenomenon of addiction will find tese essays very valuable." Ethics

"...this is an excellent interdisciplinary book and I highly recommend it to those interested in finding an adequate explanation of the behavior of addicts." Metapsychology